1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an adapter having a first electrical interface and a second electrical interface which each have contact elements for transmitting data and for transmitting electrical supply voltage, the contact elements of said first interface being connected to the corresponding contact elements of said second interface via conductors. In particular, the invention relates to an adapter for connecting a USB interface to a High Speed Data (HSD) interface.
2. Description of Related Art
Plug connectors with a USB interface are characterized through a rectangular interface geometry as well as through the arrangement of either two or all four of the contact elements next to one another in a plane. In contrast, the total of four inner contact elements of plug connectors with an HSD interface are positioned in a quad arrangement and the interface geometry is round. In a USB interface, two of the four contact elements are provided for the transmission of data signals, while electrical supply energy is transmitted via the two further contact elements. In HSD interfaces, the four inner contact elements regularly serve the purpose of a double differential signal transmission, wherein the two contact elements of the two transmission pairs are each arranged opposite one another in the quad arrangement. This arrangement in combination with a shield surrounding the contact elements guarantees transmission at a high bit rate with good electromagnetic shielding and good crosstalk attenuation. HSD plug connectors are regularly connected with shielded cables in which four conductors are provided in a star quad arrangement which can in addition be twisted together.
It is known for an HSD circuit board plug connector and a USB circuit board plug connector to be arranged on a circuit board and connected together electrically via the circuit board. In this way, an adapter is created through which two mating plug connectors with USB or HSD interface can be connected together.
Also known from WO 2011 057691 A1 is an adapter of the generic type in which the USB interface and the HSD interface are formed in a housing and the respective contact elements of the two interfaces are connected together via single-part conductors, whereby the two contact elements of the USB interface used for data transmission are connected with two diagonally opposite contact elements of the HSD interface, while the two contact elements of the USB interface used for electrical supply energy are connected with the two remaining inner contact elements of the HSD interface. The HSD interface in the adapter known from WO 2011 057691 A1 and a cable connected with this are thus not used for double differential signal transmission but for single differential signal transmission with simultaneous transmission of a supply voltage.
The object of the adapter known from WO 2011 057691 A1 is to connect, in a simple and economical manner, a USB connection with HSD-specific components in order to make use of their good transmission properties. This adapter can in particular be used in motor vehicles, which regularly have USB interfaces in their interior to which multimedia players can be connected, with the further transmission of data, in particular to a control device arranged at a distance, taking place via the HSD components which are widely used in automotive engineering.